the Insight Inn

Consumers shouldn’t have a ready, easy answer for every research question.

If they do, they probably aren’t thinking or feeling much. And to get to the heart of the matter, a moderator often has to dig a little— and that means pushing beyond what’s obvious and top-of-mind for respondents.

In qualitative research, it’s not a bad thing if your respondents pause, or get quiet for a minute. That momentary (or even lengthy) silence means you’ve asked a good question, and that person is parsing through some thoughts or feelings, or is working to shape them into words.

As any good journalist will tell you, pauses or silence can be a valuable friend. It means you’re onto something, and it means there’s something more to be discovered on this subject.

But I’ve had observers of my research bristle in these moments— watching people struggle to onboard a tough question, or waiting for respondents to think through a response, can make those watching qualitative research feel antsy, and make them wonder if the question is ‘not working’.

Quite the opposite.

Research Fallacy #22: If People Can’t Answer Questions Quickly, Move On or Drop It

It might feel awkward to witness, but it’s OK to let respondents struggle a bit in research— it might mean they are thinking (or emoting) deeply, and the whole aim of research is to get them to do that.

I find that people observing my qualitative research can be less patient for answers because they are steeped in the culture of business, which often rewards quick responses to direct questions, and doesn’t tend to reward thoughtful consideration. When in a meeting, a pause under questioning might be considered incompetent.

But observers aren’t the only victims of these feelings of impatience. Surely you’ve heard the phrase  “awkward silence?”. It’s not just part of business culture, but human culture— to find it ‘awkward’ if there’s a break in the conversation, in our talkative way of being, can mean a tendency to rush to fill the gap with the sound of our voices.

Social science has found that a lull in a conversation can trigger feelings of rejection in each party of the chat— a 2010 study out of Holland found that just 4 seconds of silence could “elicit primal fears, activating anxiety-provoking feelings of incompatibility and exclusion.” The study’s author, from the University of Groningen, compared it to dancing— when conversational flow continues, everyone feels secure. When it stops, everything feels wrong.

Thus, even moderators have to constantly remind themselves not to flinch when there’s a gap in chatter. If I had a dime for every time I saw another moderator move too-quickly off a question that caused a perceived break in momentum, I’d be wealthy by now.

In my experience, this aversion to ‘awkwardness’ can powerfully influence discussion guides and sessions as they develop, and can even lead to a less rich result. Why?

Because people can particularly struggle MOST with the exact techniques a moderator uses to push past the obvious answers— and without which— we might just lose the ability to get past the perfunctory toward the ‘good stuff’ or ‘gold nuggets’. Both observers and moderators can tend to lose their nerve when 1. Asking respondents to be creative when completing a projective exercise or activity, or  2. Softly challenging a response to push for more clarity.

Both of these tactics are invaluable to reaching true, under-the-surface insights— but the more challenging discussion guides get for respondents, the more awkward the observers and moderators can feel, setting these very lines of questioning up for elimination— NOT because they aren’t ‘working,’ but because they are making the interviewers themselves uncomfortable.

I’ve often had clients ask me to remove questions that caused respondents to ponder a bit too long, mistaking their own discomfort for a line of questioning gone awry. Don’t get me wrong, some questions are just duds sometimes— but there’s a big difference between the stunned- silence-result of poor questions, and the thoughtful pauses of consideration.

Just remember that to be effective in qualitative research— whether observing or facilitating— sometimes, you’ve got to tamp down your instinct to find silence awkward, in order to get the most out of respondents.

In research conversations, patience is absolutely a virtue.